Recovered from illness, Theriot to join Giants

By Spencer Fordin / MLB.com

NEW YORK -- San Francisco's temporary manpower shortage may be fixed by the end of Saturday's game. Ryan Theriot, who did not fly with the team on Thursday due to an illness, was expected to arrive at Citi Field sometime during the game, though he was delayed and thus unavailable.

"Theriot is not here right now, but he's on his way. I can't tell you what time he'll be here," manager Bruce Bochy said. "I'd use him in an emergency, but I'm sure he's pretty washed out. Still, the extra body, as you saw last night, can always help out."

Theriot, 32 years old, signed with the Giants in the offseason and is batting .190 -- with a matching on-base and slugging percentage -- in his first seven games. The versatile infielder won a World Series ring with the Cardinals last season, but he hasn't played since going 1-for-4 and playing 11 innings in Wednesday's 1-0 victory over Philadelphia.

The next day, when the Giants were scheduled to fly to New York, Theriot showed up under the weather.

"He was pretty bad," said Bochy. "When he showed up on the day off -- when we flew out here -- [they] said he was really bad and gradually got even worse. He threw up quite a few times, and doctors did not want him flying."

F. Sanchez to start rehab stint Monday

SAN FRANCISCO -- The Giants announced Saturday that second baseman Freddy Sanchez will begin an injury rehabilitation assignment Monday with Class A San Jose in the hope that he will be able to perform defensively by the middle of the week.

Sanchez, who hasn't appeared in a regular-season game since he dislocated his right shoulder last June, has not been able to throw with sufficient force to play his position adequately. He's expected to serve as the designated hitter on Monday before progressing toward playing defensively.

No second-guess for Bochy after hard victory

NEW YORK -- Sometimes, the manager's only choice is to smile or second-guess himself. That quandary fell to Giants manager Bruce Bochy after an eventful victory on Friday, but San Francisco's field boss preferred to take the high road. Bochy's team was a man short in Friday's win, and the Giants used 20 of the 24 players they had available.

Three of those men -- Santiago Casilla, Javier Lopez and Sergio Romo -- were used in the ninth inning with the Giants clinging to a one-run lead. The Mets wound up tying the game, but San Francisco recovered and took a 4-3 win in extra innings. And after that close call, Bochy said there was no intense fit of introspection in the winning clubhouse.

"I guess relief," he said of his emotional reaction. "You won the game, and especially having a one-run lead in the ninth. When a game goes like that -- especially late in the ballgame -- there's a lot going on. You don't have time to really think about it. You have to be somewhat prepared for what you're going to do if the pitcher gets in trouble, and we had the guys ready for a double-switch.

"Then after the game, there's probably an hour's worth on reflecting back on what you could've done different -- or just relaxing a little bit. I was relaxed. ... Those type of games haven't gone too well for the Giants here."

Bochy was prepared to play an unorthodox defensive alignment if circumstances dictated, but he would up with a fairly conventional lineup. First baseman Aubrey Huff started the game on the bench but wound up in left field in the 10th inning, and Brandon Belt took over at first base from regular catcher Buster Posey in the ninth inning.

Brandon Crawford and Emmanuel Burriss played the entire game at the middle infield positions, but Bochy was prepared to lift either one if the situation called for it. And if it had, things might have gotten a little ugly.

"We told Huff to get his infielder's glove, to have a glove ready in case something did happen," said Bochy. "We give these guys a heads up. We talked to [Brett] Pill today to be ready. But Huff was the extra infielder, depending on what happened.

"Pablo [Sandoval] could go to the middle infield, or Huff could've gone to second base. ... It probably would've been his first time. But [Huff's] played first base. He's played third base. If the ball's hit to him, I'm pretty sure he could catch it."

Giants ponder potential Monday doubleheader

NEW YORK -- The Giants aren't scheduled to come back to New York this season, which means that they could wind up playing a doubleheader on Monday if Sunday's game gets rained out. It's reasonable to expect that could happen, given that weather.com projects a 100 percent chance of rain.

Giants manager Bruce Bochy has pondered that possibility, and he said Saturday that he has discussed the scenario with general manager Brian Sabean.

"I was talking to Brian about it," said Bochy of the weather. "We weren't sure how they'd do it if something did happen. We were speculating more than anything. Day-night split? ... We were trying to speculate on what they'd do."

The Giants have Tim Lincecum and Madison Bumgarner scheduled for Sunday and Monday, respectively, and Bochy said that he wouldn't do anything out of the ordinary to prepare for the possibility of a doubleheader.

"I don't try to predict the weather," Bochy said. "I've been caught in that before. We got put in a situation with Lincecum like that, and we didn't predict it very well. It almost cost us the game. I play every game to win, and you worry about tomorrow tomorrow."

Spencer Fordin is a reporter for MLB.com. Chris Haft contributed to this report. This story was not subject to the approval of Major League Baseball or its clubs.